San Francisco 49ers linebacker Chris Borland walked away from the NFL at the age of 24 for fear of head injuries, despite not having a diagnosed concussion for a decade. And then there’s Wes Welker, the anti-Borland, a wideout with a disturbing array of concussions who isn’t ready to quit. “As long as I’ve recovered the right way and everything like that, I’m ready to go,” Welker told ESPN in December. “I really don’t see any problem with it.’’ But apparently the rest of the NFL sees what Welker doesn’t. Pro Football Talk reported the receiver has “generated no buzz”...

As I continue to read on twitter that former dude from MSNBC that couldn't beat O'Reilly at 8, some NBA star I never heard of and that CBS anaylist that I used to like until yesterday talk about how the NFL and NCAA should move from Indianapolis, I realize maybe it is time to move the Super Bowl out of San Francisco and the whole California state. There is no reason why millions of freedom loving Christians, conservatives, republicans or libertarians should have to watch this horrible city host one of the biggest events of the year. The city that...

More than 1,000 women auditioned Saturday in hopes of becoming a Houston Texans Cheerleader. The tryouts were held at the Methodist Training Center at NRG Stadium. There was so much talent on the field, the judges had a tough job. Good luck to all the ladies.

Michael Sam reveals that he is not the only gay player in the NFL. Speaking at the 2015 Dallas Holocaust Museum Upstander Speaker series, the first openly gay player drafted into the league that other gay NFL players have reached out to him. “I am not the only gay person in the NFL,” Sam told the audience, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I’m just saying there is a lot of us. I respect the players that did reach out to me and had the courage to tell me that they were also gay, but they do not have the...

"I am not the only gay person in the NFL," Sam said Thursday. "I'm just saying there is a lot of us. I respect the players that did reach out to me and had the courage to tell me that they were also gay, but they do not have the same courage as I do to come out before I even played a down in the NFL. "The players who have reached out to me and told me about their sexual orientation, it just means a lot. But I will never say anything about who they are, what teams they...

The Niners acquired Martin last March in a deal with Miami. Martin had left the Dolphins in October 2013 after accusing teammate Richie Incognito of bullying...Martin started seven games at right tackle last season in place of injured Anthony Davis. He struggled in that role and allowed 7 1/2 sacks

It's hump day for shamed NFL star Adrian Peterson as he arrives at his Arabic-themed 30th birthday party riding a camel After an NFL season to forget, Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson celebrated his 30th birthday in style on Saturday with an extravagant Arabic-themed party in his home state of Texas. Peterson is currently at the center of much speculation about who he’ll be playing for next season, but he put all that behind him at the weekend and took his own life into his hands as he entered his birthday bash on the back of camel. The...

UPDATED: B. Todd Jones, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirmed this morning that he is leaving that post, nine days after a leading national gun rights organization called on him to step down or be fired primarily because of the controversy over the agency’s recent proposal to ban a popular type of ammunition for modern sport-utility rifles. Jones, who is departing March 31, was appointed director of the scandal-plagued agency in 2013. Last week, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms called for his resignation or dismissal in the wake of...

LOS ANGELES — Just five years from reaching the NFL pinnacle as an All-Pro and Super Bowl champion, Darren Sharper is now likely headed for a lengthy prison sentence after reaching plea agreements in charges involving the drugging and sexual assault of at least nine women in four states, his lawyer said Friday. The alleged sexual assaults happened after Sharper’s 2011 retirement and followed a similar pattern. In all of the cases, Sharper is accused of slipping drugs to women and sexually assaulting them when they were unconscious or otherwise unable to resist or consent.

Chuck Bednarik, a Pro Football Hall of Famer and one of the last great two-way NFL players, has died. He was 89. A star linebacker and center, Bednarik helped the Philadelphia Eagles win the 1960 NFL championship, tackling Green Bay’s Jim Taylor on the final play to seal the victory. The top overall pick in the 1949 draft out of Penn, he spent 14 seasons as one of the toughest and most feared players in the game.

John Urschel is an offensive lineman for the NFL Baltimore Ravens whose Twitter handle is @MathMeetsFball. He has bachelor's and master's degrees in math, both with a 4.0 grade-point average. ... We should note, this isn't Urschel's first published math paper. He's also an avid chess player and hopes to be titled.

The signing of Dwayne Bowe may mean nothing in terms of the Cleveland Browns’ long, lost quarterback position. It may well be that the Browns intend to go into the 2015 season with Josh McCown and Johnny Manziel -- scary as that sounds. Then again, maybe the Browns are laying low for a major move -- a trade up to acquire Oregon’s Marcus Mariota. With Bowe on the roster, the trade makes more sense than it did without him. Without Bowe, the Browns were in dire need of a receiver. With him (and with Brian Hartline), they can get by...

BRASELTON, Ga. — An NFL player's ex-girlfriend is behind bars accused of attacking him and breaking his new girlfriend's arm with a bat. Police say the football pro's girlfriend tried to hide out at a Gwinnett County hotel after breaking into his house not once, but three times.

Let's get this out of the way first: If Tim Tebow's workout-gone-viral had been a revelation to the Eagles on Monday, he'd likely now be arranging logistics to spend the spring in Philadelphia. Tebow remains, more than anything else, a curiosity in NFL circles. According to one team official in Philly, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner did "fine." Sometimes, these tire-kickings are favors to players, to get them back on the radar. And this one, at the very least, did that for Tebow. So ... what next?

Leah Still received some encouraging news in her battle with a rare pediatric cancer Tuesday. Cincinnati Bengals unrestricted free agent Devon Still, 4-year-old Leah's father, posted on Instagram on Tuesday night that doctors informed his family that they didn't "see any active disease in her body," meaning the little girl's bout with pediatric cancer could soon be coming to the positive resolution so many have been hoping for. "We still have to wait for her MRI and bone biopsy results later this week," Still also wrote in the caption of a picture showing him and Leah flexing their muscles. Leah...

In this paper, we develop a cascadic multigrid algorithm for fast computation of the Fiedler vector of a graph Laplacian, namely, the eigenvector corresponding to the second smallest eigenvalue. This vector has been found to have applications in fields such as graph partitioning and graph drawing. The algorithm is a purely algebraic approach based on a heavy edge coarsening scheme and pointwise smoothing for refinement. To gain theoretical insight, we also consider the related cascadic multigrid method in the geometric setting for elliptic eigenvalue problems and show its uniform convergence under certain assumptions. Numerical tests are presented for computing the...

Another star member of San Francisco’s vaunted defense is calling it a career. The 49ers announced late Monday that linebacker Chris Borland is retiring after one season, without offering specifics. Borland told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” earlier Monday that he is retiring following his standout rookie season because of concerns about head trauma.

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, Eagles coach Chip Kelly has just turned his own personal don’t-give-a-damn meter to 11, bringing quarterback Tim Tebow in for a workout. He’s just messing with us at this point. The idea of Tebow and Mark Sanchez together again is almost too perfect to put into words. Kelly carries himself with a smartest-guy-in-the-room vibe anyway, but bringing in a guy the rest of the NFL had given up on speaks to a bit of hubris. Could Tebow run the Eagles’ system, considering his roots running a spread offense at Florida? Sure. Maybe. Who knows?

Tim Tebow finally knows how to throw spiral, but he won't get to show off his new skill at the NFL's first-ever veteran combine on March 22 -- because he wasn't invited. The NFL released a list of players who have been invited to the combine on Wednesday and Tebow's name was nowhere to be found ... Although Tebow won't be in attendance at the combine, Michael Sam will be there ...

A year ago the Oakland Raiders were willing to assume all of Darrelle Revis' existing contract with Tampa, and trade for him before he hit the open market, paying him $16M a season happily and not having to come up with a huge upfront payment or signing bonus or anything like that. It was exactly the kind of scenario the team -- far below the NFL's projected spending threshold from 2013-2016 required under this collective bargaining agreement -- needed, a veteran player who would never come to the perpetually rebuilding franchise in the first place, available via trade at a...

Free-agent running back DeMarco Murray is flying to Philadelphia to meet with Eagles officials, with the expectation that he will join the team, a league source told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Thursday. In the ensuing hours Thursday, the Dallas Cowboys began calling around looking for other running backs, expecting that they will lose Murray, Schefter's sources said.

The scenario has been floated before, but when someone like ESPN’s John Clayton predicts that the Washington Redskins will select Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota with the fifth overall pick of next month’s NFL draft, ears perk up. And so, that’s what happened late Tuesday night and early Wednesday, after Clayton said just that during a radio interview on the first day of the league year, when the league was whipped into a frenzy by trades and big-money free agent signings.

The Eagles settled the long-running debate over whether Nick Foles is their quarterback of the future, as they neared completion Tuesday on a trade that will send him to St. Louis for QB Sam Bradford and what would seem to be a swap of second-round draft picks, a league source said, confirming a report by ESPN's Adam Schefter. Bradford, 27, the 2010 No. 1 overall pick, has missed the past two seasons with ACL tears and would seem just as poor a fit as Foles for the read-option part of Chip Kelly's offense.

The first NFL veteran combine came and went with no Tim Tebow. But the left-handed college football analyst could show up at the next one after extensive training with Tom Brady's quarterback coach. Per Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, Tebow's been working with Tom House in Los Angeles for the past two years. House told Volin Tebow's improved greatly. "He went from being a little inaccurate and didn't throw a whole lot of spirals, to throwing very accurate and real good at spinning the ball," House said.

Stephen A. Smith is too smart to come right out and call Chip Kelly a racist. Smith knows that an accusation like that would require evidence, and Smith has none. So what Smith did on ESPN First Take today is he merely implied that Kelly is a racist, going over a selection of Kelly’s recent roster moves and then hinting that Kelly might not want black players in his locker room.

A now-retired Super Bowl-winning NFL running back went on a Twitter tirade on Saturday after openly gay 2014 draft pick Michael Sam kissed his boyfriend on television. Derrick Ward, 33, who was a member of the New York Giants Super Bowl XLII-winning team, didn't hide his disdain for ESPN's decision to air Sam's smooch with boyfriend Vito Cammisano after learning he would become a St. Louis Ram. 'Man U got little kids lookin at the draft,' Ward complained. 'I can't believe ESPN even allowed that to happen.'

Big business has come out in favor of same-sex marriage. Exactly 379 corporations and employer organizations urged the Supreme Court to strike down state bans on gay marriage, according to a friend-of-the-court brief obtained by The Huffington Post. The document was expected to be filed late Thursday morning. “Employers are better served by a uniform marriage rule that gives equal dignity to employee relationships,” reads the brief, filed by global law firm Morgan Lewis. “Allowing same-sex couples to marry improves employee morale and productivity, reduces uncertainty, and removes the wasteful administrative burdens imposed by the current disparity of state law...

The Washington Redskins’ have gained a new ally in their fight to defend their trademark against offended liberal activists: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).Last year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) ruled that the Redskins name is disparaging towards Native Americans, and as a result weakened the team’s trademark protections that allow it to keep individuals from selling unlicensed team gear. The Redskins have appealed the ruling, and in January also filed a new lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of such bans on disparaging trademarks. (RELATED: 12 Trademarks Less Offensive Than Redskins According To The PTO) The ACLU filed a...

The New England Patriots are for same-sex marriage. So are the San Francisco Giants. The reigning baseball and football champions, along with baseball's small-market Tampa Bay Rays, are among the thousands of businesses, religious groups, advocacy organizations and politicians who are filing legal briefs at the Supreme Court in support of gay marriage. The Patriots play in Massachusetts, the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry, and the Giants represent a city that is notable for its gay and lesbian community. Rays president Brian Auld said it was important that his team stand up, as well. "We're a small...

Ed Modzelewski was on the verge of retirement from the NFL to become a college assistant coach. But the persuasive Paul Brown convinced Modzelewski to remain with the Cleveland Browns ... Modzelewski, a fullback with the Browns, died last Friday of congestive heart failure at his home in Sedona, Ariz. He was 86 ... He retired following the 1959 season. Modzelewski went into the restaurant business with his brother Dick ... Dick played two seasons with the Browns (1964-66) ...

The Inglewood City Council unanimously approved St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s prospective stadium at Hollywood Park on Tuesday. The $1.86 billion, 80,000-seat, closed-roof structure, to be opened in 2018, would become the world’s most expensive stadium. Chris Meany, vice president of the Hollywood Park Land Company (HPLC), partners with the Kroenke Group, commented, “It’s just the next step, but it’s a very important step.”

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A federal government decision to cancel the Washington Redskins' trademark because it may be disparaging infringes on free-speech rights and unfairly singles the team out, lawyers argued in court papers filed Monday.

First openly gay player in NFL still hopes to find team (did he ever actually make the team?) Sam will be joining the cast of "Dancing With The Stars" next season.The St. Louis Rams selected the 25-year-old Sam in the seventh-round of the NFL Draft last season. He was released before the start of the season and signed to the Dallas Cowboys' practice squad in September before being waived in midseason.Sam says he still wants to play in the NFL. But filming for the program begins in March, which could cause a conflict for Sam. The inaugural veteran combine, which...

Michael Sam gained overnight fame by becoming the first openly gay football player to be drafted into the NFL. Now the 25-year-old Texan will show off his soft shoe by joining the celebrity contenders on season 20 of Dancing With The Stars, according to TMZ.

Before the 40s and the jumping and the throwing, Jameis Winston went through interviews with a number of teams. The results were, well, allow me to let one team's personnel man who was in the room with Winston explain. "I think he's probably the smartest player I've ever interviewed," he told me. Ever? "Ever," he responded. "Football IQ as good as I've ever seen." One scout described how Winston was so impressive with his knowledge of X's and O's that "there was a moment where we kind of looked at each other and said, 'Oh, okay, wow.'" The comparison I...

The New York Times has devoted enormous resources to covering this controversy - more than 40 articles, including a 5,200-word piece by three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Walt Bogdanich -- probing the legal processes that have cleared Winston. But the newspaper’s coverage has been characterized by the same selective and agenda-driven presentation of the facts it faults Florida authorities for exhibiting. The accuser, anonymous until last month, has now publicly identified herself and told her story in “The Hunting Ground.” Her name is Erica Kinsman. In her version of events, she was not only raped by Winston but also mistreated by...

Under openly gay CEO Tim Cook, Apple has done a lot to forward gay rights. A year ago, the company stood up against homophobic legislation going through Arizona and organized a company-wide march in San Francisco’s annual gay pride parade. All in all, Apple’s one of the most gay-friendly companies you can work for. So here’s a shocker for you: When Apple figured out it had accidentally hired someone with a history of anti-gay activities, it quickly severed contact. The hire in question was Jay Love, a former politician Apple hired to lobby on its behalf to the Alabama state...

On the field, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders have had as bitter a rivalry as any in the NFL but in a sense, they’re now partners. The teams will officially announce Friday that, while they work on stadium deals in their current cities, they will jointly pursue a shared, $1.7-billion NFL stadium in Carson as an alternative. While theirs might seem to be an unlikely pairing -- the Silver & Black and the Powder Blue -- the Raiders and Chargers have actually been closer over the years than many people might think.

Political discord increased Tuesday between the San Diego Chargers and Mayor Kevin Faulconer over whether the city will build a new stadium to keep the team from moving to Los Angeles. The two sides exchanged increasingly pointed barbs accusing the other of not dealing in good faith to solve the volatile issue.

According to Florio, who cited a league source with knowledge of the situation, the New England Patriots notified the NFL about an issue with the special-teams ball after scoring the first touchdown of the game. Scott Miller, the league official who was fired, called for the football Â— which was marked Â“K1â€ł by game officials before the game started Â— following the opening kickoff, Florio reported. Video evidence shows Miller collecting the ball. Read more at: http://nesn.com/2015/02/report-patriots-notified-nfl-about-issue-with-ball-fired-league-employee-named/

Weeks after the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl victory the DeflateGate scandal continues to rumble on in the background. According to ESPN’s Outside the Lines, a Patriots locker room attendant attempted to introduce an unapproved special teams ball into the AFC Championship game. The attendant, identified by ESPN as Jim McNally, is said to have been in charge of the officials’ locker room at Gilette Stadium since 2008. He is alleged to have handed a ball, which wasn’t officially approved for kick-offs, field goals and punts to an official during the first-half of the Patriots’ 45-7 victory over the Colts.

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam claims he didn’t know of Johnny Manziel’s lifestyle when he drafted the former Heisman Trophy-winner last year. “I don’t know how much of Johnny’s personal life was known by everybody then,” Haslam told a press conference on Friday. Manziel currently sits in a rehabilitation facility to transition from his party lifestyle to a sober one. Manziel slipped to the 22nd pick in the 2014 draft based largely on the concerns that Haslam now suggests were largely unknown last spring. College Station police arrested the Texas A&M quarterback on alcohol-related charges after a late-night fight in 2012...

Out-of-work running back Ray Rice has issued a statement thanking the Baltimore Ravens and apologizing for his actions in a February 2014 elevator incident with his now-wife that struck a serious chord with the nation a year ago. Rice's high-profile case was the signature incident of a horrific domestic-violence swell among NFL players last season, and it raised awareness of what appeared to be a growing problem in the league. For his part, Rice apologized for his actions and thanked the city of Baltimore and the team, which released him last season once the full tape of Rice hitting his...

It was a year ago - the Sunday after Super Bowl XLVIII at 8pmET - that Michael Sam turned speculation into reality: One of college football's best players, and a top NFL prospect, was gay. In the coming months he was showered with praise. Eric Dickerson would offer him congratulations. Michael Irvin would call him his friend. Robert Quinn welcomed him to the Rams. Even the President of the United States, Barack Obama himself, would laud him.

Troy Vincent is the Executive Vice President of Football Operations for the NFL... According to news reports such as this one from ESPN he claims that Ryan Grigson, the General Manager of the Colts alerted the NFL to deflated footballs during the AFC Championship, and that it was his decision to follow through with an inspection of the balls, without informing his boss Roger Goodell. Keep in mind, the PSI of an NFL football has NEVER been inspected at the half-time of any NFL game in history... EVER! And here is the rub... Troy Vincent has strong ties to the...

Does the front office of the New England Patriots prefer to have white players on its roster? There is circumstantial evidence that may be the case. While the racial makeup of an NFL team in any given year has its share of random fluctuations, the New England Patriots have seemingly had a suspiciously large amount of white players on its teams during the Robert Kraft-Bill Belichick era. Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, Danny Woodhead, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, and Tom Brady — all have been some of the more prominent “faces” of the franchise in recent years, and they all happen...

He was a small business owner in Kent, WA and loved his family, work, clients, traveling, the Seahawks and life. We blame the Seahawks lousy play call for Mike's untimely demise. Mike was greatly loved and will be dearly missed.

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll isn't sleeping well these days. Carroll and his offensive coaching staff made the infamous decision to pass the ball from New England's 1-yard line in the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX, resulting in Russell Wilson throwing a game-ending interception.

Hitting on every draft prediction made right now would be nice, but the main purposes of this and most subsequent mocks are two-fold. They are meant to A) offer some insight into a team's needs, with the picks hopefully highlighting a current hole; and B) reveal a little bit about how the prospects are stacking up against one another.